September 14, 2015

Hey everyone!

How has it been going for all of you? I hope you all had a great week,

because you all deserve to have one! It was a pretty busy week for us,

but so many miracles happened. It was great!

It all started on Tuesday, we were picking names to go visit and tract

around those neighborhoods. Elder Foster and Elder Froc had an

impression to go visit a woman named Shelia in Delanco (5 minutes from

where we live). We stopped by the house and asked a woman, named

Carmen, if Shelia still lived there. She said no, but invited us in.

It was great! We were about to teach her and her husband, Rodrigo, the

Restoration and Carmen said "Wait here, let me get my brother and her

girlfriend. They definitely need to hear this". So we also taught

Angela and Emmanuel. By the end of the lesson, they told they felt so

much peace and knew we were messengers of God. We taught them again on

Saturday the Plan of Salvation and committed them (except Rodrigo, who

speaks Spanish) to be baptized on November 8th! It was a miracle, all

because we stopped by an investigator who moved. But that wasn't the

only miracle we saw in the week.

On Wednesday we were tracting for the most part. The last house we

knocked on, a woman named Norma answered and said we could come back

the next day and talk with her. So we stop by on Thursday and taught

her the restoration, and she just got so excited! We invited her to be

baptized on October 11th and she accepted after the first lesson! It

was so great to teach all these new investigators and have them

already be committed to baptism. By the end of our week, we went from

two investigators with a date, to six!

There were a lot of crazy things that happened as well. Thursday, we

had Zone Training. Which is normal, except the Mission President and

his wife came unannounced. It was so different, but at the same time I

loved it. When I see President and Sister Andersen, I just get some

major relief come over me. Anytime I feel overwhelmed, just seeing

them makes things seem easier. It was a great training, but our

companionship had some surprising news. We found out Elder Froc needed

to be emergency transferred to Pottsville, Pennsylvania because a

missionary up there went home. He left the next day, so all we did was

weekly plan, help him pack, and waited for the Assistants to the

President come pick him up. Then did a little tracting at the end of

the night. It was weird saying goodbye to Elder Froc, a week after I

said goodbye to Elder Hendricks. But it's alright! Elder Foster and I

have had a blast and are doing a lot of great work.

I hope you all of you are doing well. That's one of my sincere hopes

while I'm on my mission. I am doing well, it hasn't been easy.  There

are even days where nothing goes our way. But that's okay, we're out

here working and doing all the Lord is asking us to do. Be safe, and

just enjoy life. It's my testimony that God lives, and because of our

Savior Jesus Christ, we can live with Him again. If you know this to

be true, hold dear to that knowledge. If you can't say you know this

to be true, just know there is always time if you desire to have that

knowledge. I promise you. Through the power of the atonement our

natures can be changed, I know this to be true, I know it. Take care,

and know our Father in Heaven loves you personally. That knowledge

alone has changed my life for the better and I see that same change to

those I teach.

Elder Cortes